If you consider yourself a recreational bowler, it is likely that you focus mostly on the ball, pins, and hopefully the dots and arrows.
And this makes sense: these are very important pieces of the puzzle when you want to succeed at bowling. But concentrating solely on these elements leaves out one area of crucial importance: the lane conditions!
You are probably aware that bowling lanes are coated with oil, but this isn’t just to protect them or make them look nice and shiny. On the contrary, oil has a massive affect on how your ball reacts with the lane and hits or doesn’t hit your target.
At the higher levels, oil is deliberately used to make it more challenging to score. Because of all of this, taking some time to learn about oil and lane conditions is one of the best things you can do to improve your bowling game.
Bowling Lane Oil for Beginners
So how exactly does oil affect the bowling ball? Simply put, oil affects the hook or spin of the bowling ball.
If there is more oil on the lane the ball will tend to skid and travel on a straight path instead of hooking.
In contrast, a lane with little to no oil will cause the ball to hook more. This is particularly challenging because you can’t tell exactly how the lanes are oiled until you see it in action. That’s why your practice time is so important.
Moreover, the lane won’t simply be applied with heavy or light oil all over. Instead, there will be a particular pattern to it, which we call the oil pattern.
In most cases, the lane is only oiled on about the first 35 to 45 feet of the 60 total feet from the foul line to the pins. Pro bowlers have ominous sounding oil patters such as Cheetah, Viper and Scorpion, and these are very difficult.
Fortunately, you shouldn’t have to worry about any of these unless you’re trying to make the pro circuit. Instead, there is a type of oil pattern found in open bowling and regular bowling leagues.
This is called the house oil pattern, and it is oiled in such a way to help beginners and intermediate bowlers.
What Is the House Oil Pattern?
The house pattern is set up so that there is more oil in the center of the lane than the outsides.
This is designed to help you score higher, because your ball can spin back into the center if it gets a little too close to the gutter.
That is the basic idea for house patterns everywhere, but individual bowling alleys are different and will apply the oil slightly differently.
Also, more factors affect how exactly your bowl will react, including the material your ball is made out of, how recently the lane was oiled, and even how many people have bowled before you since then! (Each ball rolled will take off some of the oil.)
Because of this, pay close attention to how your ball is reacting with your first few rolls so you can understand how the lanes are playing. (This is why practice is so important.)
And if you bowl with a hook, lane conditions will be even more important since your ball is traveling across more of the lane.
Have you found any tricks or tips to help you master the house oil pattern or other lane conditions you have run into. image credit
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